


we were alone, and I was singing this song to you

by Albrya



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Asoiaf - Fandom, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Game of Thrones AU, Secret Relationship, Slow Burn, figure skating AU, ice dance au, will they won't they
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-23 05:16:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17677112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Albrya/pseuds/Albrya
Summary: Jon Snow never in his life thought he would be a figure skater, let alone an ice dancer.When he was six years old, he wanted nothing more than to be a hockey player. He thought he was going to learn to play, but his mom tricked him and instead put him in a figure skating class. Before he knew it, he was paired with a girl and the rest was history. He originally thought he was going to quit skating once he graduated high school. He and his partner Ygritte agreed that they were going to move on because skating wasn’t the end all be all in their lives, but that all changed when his coach got a call. Now here he was 18 years old, partnerless, and waiting to try out with a girl from America.(An Ice Dance AU that follows Jon and Sansa throughout their career as they go for Olympic glory while trying to balance their personal lives with their career)





	1. 2006 (I)

**Author's Note:**

> I've watched figure skating, and more specifically ice dance, for a while now and while it's a very beautiful sport, what's fascinated me the most are the stories behind the partnerships and programs. This story isn't based on just one specific team, but rather a collection of skaters and their relationships and history. This is my first work so it might be a little rough, but thanks for the support. Enjoy!

Jon Snow never in his life thought he would be a figure skater, let alone an _ice dancer._

When he was six years old, he wanted nothing more than to be a hockey player. He thought he was going to learn to play, but his mom tricked him and instead put him in a figure skating class. Before he knew it, he was paired with a girl and the rest was history. He originally thought he was going to quit skating once he graduated high school. He and his partner Ygritte agreed that they were going to move on because skating wasn’t the end all be all in their lives, but that all changed when his coach got a call. Now here he was 18 years old, partnerless, and waiting to try out with a girl from America.

The nerves were getting to him, and so he decided to do a few laps to calm himself down. All he could think about was this girl from America. He’d met her once at a competition in Lake Placid. She was competing with her brother and they’d come in 4th while he and Ygritte placed in 2nd, just behind their rivals and other American team Tyrell and Tarly. She was sweet and congratulated them on their silver, but then he was interrupted by Theon wanting to celebrate because Canada was coming home with a Silver and Bronze. That seemed so long ago, but in those 10 months since he and Ygritte broke up and both her and her brother also split. It may seem like a lot, but this happened all the time with young ice dance teams. New teams would split and form, but it was an especially turbulent time now that it was the start of a new quad. Four years until the next Olympics, and everyone would be working hard to qualify for 2010 in Vancouver.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by the person occupying his mind stepping onto the ice. She skated up to him and held out a hand.

“Hello, I’m Sansa Stark.”

“Hi,” he said as he took her hand, “I’m Jon Snow.”

She was tall, barely three inches shorter than him, and that was saying something because he was a giant to the figure skating world at a jaw-dropping 6’1”. She had her long red hair in a braid and was wearing her Team USA jacket with red, white, and blue stripes running down the arms. She smiled at him sweetly before saying, “Shall we just try to match pace to get started?”

“Ok.” They held each other’s hands as they began to take strides around the rink. He’d been told countless times by Ygritte to slow down because she had difficulty keeping up sometimes, and their coach would have to remind him to match pace all the time so it didn’t look like he was dragging her around the ice. But to his astonishment, she was keeping up, and in fact, she was pushing him to go faster. He turned to her, but she was keeping quiet and avoiding eye contact. “You do know you’re in Canada right?” he joked.

“What?” she said.

“Your jacket,” he gestured.

“Oh...yeah sorry. I should’ve worn something red...sorry.”

“Don’t be. I was only trying to lighten the mood,” he turned to find his coach standing by the boards, looking for any signal for them to come back (or to save him from this awkward encounter). Aemon had been his and Ygritte’s first coach and taught them everything he knew. Back in the day, he had been a famous singles skater, but after retirement, he settled into the role of coach. Finally, he called them over. Mordane, their choreographer, was standing next to him also keeping a watchful eye.

“Alright you two that’s enough now come here,” Aemon called. Both Jon and Sansa met them at the boards, and as soon as they stopped she released his hand and looked away. “How did it feel? Feel ok?” Both looked at him but said nothing. “Well?”

“Perhaps, we should give them some time to get to know each other before we start again,” Mordane suggested. Aemon stared at them for a long time before agreeing.

“Ok, we’ll reconvene in an hour? Sound good?” Both shook their heads before taking off for the benches. They sat down and untied their skates as they began talking.

“I’m sorry,” Sansa said, “I’m just really nervous. It’s the first time I’ve ever skated with someone other than my brother and I’m in a different country...and...it just feels weird.”

“It’s ok I don’t bite,” he said. That actually made her laugh, and that made him smile.

“I didn’t think so, you seem nice,” she said as she put on her pink skate guards. “So what’s your story?”

“My what?”

“Your story,” she repeated, “everyone has one. I want to hear yours since, hopefully, you’ll be my partner.”

He sighed, “Well...I was born here in Kitchener, and not long after my parents separated. My mom remarried, and the three of us live not too far from the rink. When I was six, I wanted to be a hockey player, but my mom tricked me and put me in a figure skating class at the suggestion of one of her friends. Well not too long after Aemon paired me with his star skater, Ygritte Wilde. We got along great and actually won competitions and made it as far as junior nationals, but I never thought that I would stay in skating. I thought I was going to go into Engineering like my step-dad.” He stopped, and Sansa looked confused.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know. I applied for school, but then Aemon told me and Ygritte something. He said we had a chance at making the Olympics, and that gave me hope. Me and Ygritte talked about going to the Olympics as kids, but to us that idea was foolish and unrealistic. But when he said it then, I believed him, but she didn’t. She chose to go to school and left me. I was ready to give up, but that was until you called. So that’s me, how about you?” She smiled back at him, and he couldn’t help but stare into her blue eyes.

“Well, I was born in Lansing, Michigan,” she started, "the second of five, and we grew up in Okemos, a town not too far from Michigan State. It was a fun childhood, and I remember when I was 7 my parents gave me a pair of figure skates for Christmas. I was overjoyed and couldn’t wait to learn. I began lessons and discovered I wasn’t a strong jumper, and so my coach told me I should try ice dance. Around the same time my brother, who’s your age, was required by his school to do a team sport, and so to kill two birds with one stone, we were made an ice dance team. We worked hard and saw success, but I think it’s hard for people to take brother-sister teams seriously. And Robb wanted to do other things, like go to school, so my coach recommended I try and find a new partner if I wanted to get serious about ice dance. It was hard at first because of my height, but then she saw that you too were left partnerless. I remembered you from Lake Placid, and so I asked for a tryout. Now here I am hoping that you can take me to the Olympics,” she said.

“You want to go to the Olympics?” he asked tentatively.

“Of course. I mean, why else would I be here. I believe that you and I have what it takes to get there. I read the rules and if we start now, we can meet the requirement for competing internationally by the time the Junior Grand Prix series starts, which means, if we gain enough points, we can qualify for the National Championships in January. This can get us noticed and put us on the right track for the Olympics.” The shyness was gone. He looked at her and saw the determination written on her face. She had a plan, and all she needed was him. “What do you say, Jon Snow? Are you in?” She held out her hand ready to make an agreement. He looked at her hand and thought about what he was agreeing to. The next four years. They would have to work their asses off to make this a reality. But then he looked at her. This young 17-year-old girl was prepared to uproot her whole life, everything she knew and loved, to move to a new country all on the slim chance that they could go to the Olympics. He sighed before shaking her hand.

“Ok, let’s do this I guess.” She did a little celebratory dance before standing up.

“Great! Now let’s get back out there.” She took off her guards, placed them carefully on the boards, and got back on the ice just before Aemon and Mordane returned with coffees.


	2. 2006 (II)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me a little longer than I hoped, but I finished the second chapter. I got a little distracted but also reinspired by Four Continents this past weekend. The Ice Dance event surely did not disappoint! Anyway, thanks for the support and I hope you enjoy.

It had been about three weeks since Sansa first arrived, and slowly they were settling into a routine. She was staying with a host family across town, and so every morning Jon would wake up half an hour earlier than usual to pick her up in his old truck so that they would be at the rink at 7 am sharp. He would take her home, and sometimes she’d come over to his house in the evenings for dinner. His mom adored her and loved to regale Sansa with so many stories about his childhood (much to his embarrassment) while he and his step-dad watched whatever game was on that night. At the rink, Aemon and Mordane were busy working on what songs they were going to skate to. For the Argentine Tango, it was decided that they would play it safe and do _María de Buenos Aires_. As for the Free Dance, there was difficulty finding common ground.

“How about _Carmen_?” Aemon suggested. Mordane rolled her eyes.

“Everyone and their mother has done _Carmen_. We need something to make them stand out. Thankfully, I was inspired last night, went through some old tapes, and found this,” she said as she pulled out an old VHS tape.

“ _The Umbrellas of Cherbourg_?” Jon asked.

“It’s a musical about young lovers. She falls in love with a mechanic and they think they’re going to be together forever, but then he is drafted for the war. When he comes back, he discovers that she’s married to someone else. Years later they reunite and there’s a spark, but alas, they have to accept that they can never be together.” Jon found the whole idea sappy and would rather skate to _Carmen_ , but then he could see the glistening in Sansa’s eyes.

“I love it!” she exclaimed as she grabbed his arm. “What do you think, Jon?”  He took a deep breath before he shook his head.

“If I’m being honest, I don’t think we’re ready for a story like this. I think we should just be safe and do a warhorse like _Carmen_ or something.” Her once beaming smile faded away along with her excitement.

“That makes sense,” she conceded, “ _Carmen_ is a safer choice since it’s only our first season together. I guess we’re done then...we found our piece.” She put on her jacket and headed off to the locker rooms without another word. He felt guilty for ruining her excitement and regretted ever voicing his opinion. He glanced back at the tape and picked it up to take a closer look to see if it might change his mind. The two people on the cover looked happy as they sang what only he could assume was a love song to each other.

“A love story _,”_ he thought. He and Ygritte had avoided love stories because they found them boring and overused. They preferred the more neutral, classical pieces that showed off their technical brilliance rather than the romantic ones that relied on chemistry for success.

“You know,” Aemon said as if he was reading his mind, “this is a chance for you to explore new styles and storylines now that you have a new partner. She’s not Ygritte, and the sooner you figure that out, the better off you’ll be, son.” Both Aemon and Mordane were giving Jon the ‘ _I’m your coach and know what’s best for you_ ’ look which only made him annoyed.

“Alright! I’ll think about it over the weekend.” He grabbed the tape and went off to the locker rooms.

 

By the time he was changed and ready to leave, Sansa was already waiting for him by the doors with her bags. She smiled at him, but he could tell she was still bummed out about the music choice. The drive back to her host family’s home was uncomfortably silent, and so he tried to break the tension.

“So, how are you liking your new home?”

“It's nice. My host mom cooks a great roast, and in the evenings both parents help me with my French before bed. Overall they’re lovely and have a wonderful home,” she answered. “It’s just…,” she trailed off trying to find the right words. “They’re very quiet. Like almost eerily quiet.” Jon looked at her in confusion before she clarified. “I come from a big family y’know. Four siblings. I’m used to them yelling and arguing and causing a mess. It’s just strange going from a full house to just me and an elderly couple whose children are all grown and moved out. I guess I’m just a little homesick, that’s all. I’ll get over it eventually.” He felt for her. His entire life he had lived in the same house with the same people in the same town as he was born. He couldn’t even imagine what she must be going through.

“Have you thought about going home to visit? Maybe on the weekend?”

“I’ve thought about it, but I don’t have a car and the bus would take too long. There really is no point anyway.”

“I could drive you.”

“What?” He didn’t even realize he’d suggested that. “It’s almost a four-hour drive, and you’d be wasting your whole weekend,” she protested.

“I don’t mind. I’d probably already be wasting my time playing video games or whatever. And at least this way, we get to learn more about each other and I can finally meet your family.” She looked at him for a long time.

“Are you sure? My family is a lot. They can be very judgemental and-”

“It’s ok, Sansa. We’ll leave on Saturday and be back on Sunday in time for practice the next morning. It’ll be fun.” Her face lit up with excitement which only made his do the same. Her smiles were contagious, and he didn’t know how he had the audacity to rob her of her happiness earlier at the rink.

“Thank you.”

“Hey, it’s what friends/skating partners do.”

 

Saturday came, and he was at her house by noon. She came running out with a bag and tupperware, and much to his surprise she was dressed up in a yellow sundress and jean jacket. Up until then, he’d only ever seen her in leggings and a sweatshirt at practice and whenever she came over to his house. She looked pretty in a dress, and even more so when she smiled at him as she got in the car.

“Good morning, Jon!” She opened her tupperware to reveal a batch of cookies. “I baked something special for the trip last night.” She handed him one to try, and he was surprised.

“Oatmeal?”

“Of course! I remember you saying they were your favorite.” He was taken aback by that. It was such a small detail he said in passing one day. And yet, she remembered.

“Well, thank you.”

“No problem! After all...it’s what friends/skating partners do,” she said as she winked at him. He couldn’t help but laugh at that. If this was how their partnership was going to go, he’d say that they were off to a great start.

They were almost out of the city when she started looking around his glove compartment. “You have any music other than the radio? The commercial breaks are annoying me."

“Yeah, I have some CD’s in the center if you want to take a look.” He dug around in the storage area and pulled out a case and gave it to her. She carefully flipped through a few pages examining his music selection before chuckling to herself.

“Ha, you and my older brother will get along. You two have almost identical music tastes.”

“Really?”

“AC/DC? Journey? Queen? Yeah, I’d say so.”

“Hey, they’re good!” She continued to flip through the case before stopping at one section.

“What’s this?” she asked as she held up a K.D. Lang CD with confusion.

“Oh yeah! I forgot I had that one in here. I mainly have that for one song, the 6th one.”

“ _Hallelujah_?”

“It’s a beautiful song, my mom used to sing it to me all the time when I was young to make me feel better, and I just really like this version.” She put it in and as the piano interlude began to play he cleared his throat for comedic effect.

 _“_ Heard that there was a secret chord… _,”_ he began, and soon he was performing a full-on duet with K.D. Lang. When the song ended, he looked to her for gratification. Instead, she looked unimpressed.

“Wow,” she said, “dogs could have sung that better.”

“Aww, c’mon you have to admit. That was good.”

“I’ll give you points for performance, but overall your grade of execution could have been better.”

“Touché, Sansa Stark, touché.”

“Alright, enough of that...let’s listen to some Queen.”

She rolled down the windows, and soon they were both belting out Queen's greatest hits as they made their way through the countryside. He would occasionally glance over at her, and she’d smile back as her hair flew wild in the wind. She stuck her hands outside without a care in the world as they sang _Don’t Stop Me Now,_ and she looked straight out of a dream.

 

Four hours later, they finally arrived at her home. It was a large two-story house hidden in the forest with a huge backyard and pool. Jon was amazed. The garage alone was probably bigger than his house. As they were pulling up the driveway, Sansa anxiously tried to fix her hair and put on some quick makeup. She looked at him before making a face.

“Here,” she beckoned for him to come close and then tried styling his hair.

“What are you doing?”

“Your hair got messed up from the wind, and I want you to look nice if you don’t want any snide comments from my mom.”

“Alright.”

After she thoroughly combed his hair and commented about how he should have shaved this morning (and maybe worn something other than jeans and a t-shirt), they finally got out and headed to the door. Seeing the inside of her house, Jon thought he definitely should have dressed up more. It was pristine and looked like a house right out of an IKEA ad. All around were pictures that showed a perfect suburban family, and he couldn’t help but laugh at the ones of Sansa with toothy grins and pig-tails. She saw him staring and immediately went to cover them.

“Don’t look at those!”

“Why? You were cute and besides, my mom showed you all my embarrassing pictures.”

“Stop it!” They were laughing at each other when someone clearing their throat interrupted them.

“I didn’t know you were home yet, Sansa.”

“Mom!” She immediately straightened before going and giving her a hug.

“We’re all in the back,” she turned to look at Jon before eyeing him from head to toe with an icy glare. “You must be Jon. I’m Sansa’s mother, Catelyn Stark.” She shook his hand (rather forcefully if he was being honest) before gesturing for them to follow. “Come on now, we’ve been waiting for you.” He saw Sansa mouth a silent ‘ _Sorry’_ before they followed her to the back porch. All the kids were splashing in the pool while an older man who he could only assume was her father sat under an umbrella reading a book. When he saw them coming he quickly got on his feet to greet them.

“Hello, I’m Ned Stark. Welcome to our home.” He shook his hand before going to hug his daughter. “Good to see you, Sweetling. How’s Canada?”

“Oh Dad, it’s simply wonderful. Jon is a fantastic partner and our coaches are amazing!”

“That’s great to hear.

She looked around before asking, “Where’s Robb?”

“He couldn’t come home this weekend, said he had an important exam this coming week.”

“He was probably hung over from partying with his frat friends,” said another voice. A scrawny dark-haired girl came to the porch with two younger boys following not far behind. “You must be the poor sap who has to skate with Her Royal Highness,” Sansa rolled her eyes as her brothers snickered at the nickname.

“These are my siblings Arya, Bran, and Rickon.” Arya shook his hand and the boys introduced themselves before bombarding him with a hundred questions that he could hardly keep up. Just before everyone was going to sit down, Sansa’s mother peeked her head out the backdoor.

“Dinner is ready, we were just waiting for you two to arrive. Hurry up now inside. We don’t want the food getting any colder!” she said as she ushered everyone inside to eat.

 

The dining room was huge and elaborately decorated just liked the rest of the house.  Her mom had cooked Sansa’s favorite home-cooked meal with even a lemon cake ready for dessert. It was a very formal affair, far more sophisticated than any home dinner his family ever had at his home, and it made him feel out of place amongst the group. Most of the conversation was led by her father as he wanted to get to know more about Jon, Kitchener, and their training. Whenever he was getting nervous or was at a loss for words, he would look to Sansa for support. She’d see his distress and step in to save him by telling a funny story or some random detail of how different Canada was from the U.S. Her family seemed to enjoy those differences and would make a little remark of ‘Wow!’ or ‘Oh how unique!’ It seemed to be going relatively well until her youngest brother asked a question.

“Are you Sansa’s boyfriend?” That made him choke on his water which got a disapproving look from her mom.

“Rickon!” Sansa exclaimed, “Gods no! That’s ridiculous, he’s only my skating partner.” To avoid any further awkwardness she quickly changed the subject. “We’re going to go to the Olympics.” That got his attention and he looked to them in wonder.

“Wow! Like Michael Phelps?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

 

Dinner finally came to an end, and Jon could not be any more thankful. He offered to help clean but her mother just shooed him away saying he was a guest. To avoid any further interrogation, he chose to investigate the rest of the house. He wandered around until the trophy case in the study caught his attention. It was rather large and inside were all sorts of trophies accompanied by pictures of each child. From what he could see, there were awards for accomplishments in everything from Football to Spelling Bees. He finally found Sansa and her brother’s Figure Skating medals with their best being their Junior Ice Dance Pewter medal from the U.S. Championships last year. Their medals were so nicely displayed compared to his at his parent's house. His mom tried to make them look nice by framing them on the wall, but they seemed tacky compared to this elaborate illuminated case. Sansa found him and came close to see what he was looking at.

“Wow, that seems so long ago, yet it was only this past January,” she laughed. “We didn’t expect to get anything and we were just happy to be there. By then Robb already said that this was his last year so we thought we had nothing to lose. I remember the look of shock on all of our faces when we found out we were the Pewter medalists. Everyone was so proud, and then we went for ice cream to celebrate. If we didn’t medal then...I don’t think I would’ve kept going.” She sighed before turning to face him. “I’m sorry about my family’s behavior...especially my mom. She can be difficult sometimes, but she means well. They all do. Once they get used to you, trust me, they’ll support you and love you unconditionally.” He smiled at that.

“This is nice. All of this,” he said as he gestured to her entire house. “You have a good family behind you.”

“Yeah, I do. I mean not many parents would let their daughter leave home at 17 to chase what seems like an impossible dream. But they told me that if I have a dream, to dream bigger. Anything is possible.” That sounded very close to something his mom had told him once not too long ago. She encouraged him to go to university and get a degree, but when he came home telling her he wanted to continue skating, she understood. It seemed that everyone was in agreement with making this dream a reality, but to do that they had to make their mark now while it was still early in the quad. And to do that, they had to skate to something other than _Carmen_.

“Sansa?”

“Hmm?”

“I brought something, something for us to watch to give us ideas.” He ran out to his truck to grab the VHS tape Aemon had given him and brought it back in to show her. 

“Are you serious?!”

“I thought we could at least watch it, to get a feel for the story.”

They set up the VHS in the living room and began watching this doomed love story that Mordane had recommended. It was hard to follow at first because it was in French, but once he got used to the subtitles he was able to follow along with the story. Her family came to watch it as well, but one by one they all left because, as Arya so eloquently put it, this movie was ‘ _as boring as watching paint dry_.’ By the end, it was just him and Sansa watching it. Throughout the movie, they were brainstorming ideas like how maybe this piece could work for a step sequence or how she could possibly wear a blue dress like Geneviève. It all seemed to be falling into place until they got to the end. As the two characters said their final goodbyes to each other, Sansa couldn’t help but cry, and even his eyes got a little watery. Just like that, the two star-crossed lovers could never be together again. There was something poetic about it that sparked Jon's interest. Maybe this whole romantic storyline wouldn’t be so terrible after all. “Sansa," he said, "I think I want to skate to this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will definitely get more into the competition aspect. As always, thanks so much for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> I have a general idea of where I want to take this story and estimated about 14 chapters to complete it. As the story goes on, I want to reference certain programs that inspired me to write, and I'll post the links at the end of the chapter so you can picture the performance I had in mind. Find me on Tumblr at http://diamondsandturquiose.tumblr.com and message me if you want to talk about the story or whatever. Thanks for reading.


End file.
